The Camp Verde Town Council shared a prepared statement asking for the Verde Valley to be considered a “community of interest” at a congressional and legislative redistricting meeting July 27.
The Town Council discussed how they should approach the issue at its July 21 meeting. The Independent Redistricting Commission will be redrawing Arizona’s congressional and legislative districts following the results of the 2020 census, as they do every10 years.
During the last redistricting, the Verde Valley was placed into two separate Congressional districts, which split the Yavapai-Apache Nation and placed Camp Verde and Cottonwood in separate districts as well.
The IRC commission is made up of two registered Republicans, two registered Democrats and a chairperson registered as “independent” to maintain impartiality. The redistricting decisions are based on a number of factors including district shape, geographical features, respect for “communities of interest” and potential competitiveness.
A “community of interest” is defined as a group of people and geographic area with common concerns about issues such as religion, political ties, history, tradition, geography, demography, ethnicity, culture, social economic status, trades and other shared interests that would benefit from joint representation.
Leaders of regional municipalities say the Verde Valley shares many ties, including working cooperatively on issues such as transportation, broadband, housing, tourism and recreation.
The IRC held a public meeting to hear comments on this year’s redistricting July 27 at Yavapai College in Prescott. Representatives from Sedona, Clarkdale and Camp Verde made statements at the meeting asking for the Verde Valley to be considered a community of interest.
The Cottonwood City Council discussed the issue but decided not to make a decision for or against it before getting more information and plan to revisit the issue at a work session Aug. 10, Town Manager Ron Corbin said.
“There’s an assumption that one representative is better than two, and I would argue that that’s the prevailing thought even of all the speakers that ended up at the IRC meeting,” he said. “Council is kind of curious. There’s an opportunity to meet with two congressmen instead of one on certain issues …. There’s just been times over history where maybe having two is better than having one.”
The Camp Verde council, too, had some back and forth discussion about whether urging the commission to keep the entire valley in the same district would be beneficial or if having more than one representative would be better.
Town Manager Russ Martin explained that while each of the municipalities in the Verde Valley, including Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Jerome, Sedona and other unincorporated areas, generally agree on regional issues such as the economy and natural resources, they don’t always agree on a political level.
“The goal of that group is to consider us a community of interest so that we have a representative where us as a Verde Valley, an 80,000 population group, will have a significant impact upon a representative,” he said. “It’s true, we don’t always agree in this valley on a political realm, especially, I would say, at a federal level, but at a state level that’s probably less true. We tend to work very well together.”
Vice Mayor Joe Butner agreed that certain towns in the Verde Valley arent always politically aligned and expressed concern that the other towns that have spoken up, which have cited issues such as combined economy, infrastructure, health care systems, natural resources, economic development opportunities and ecotourism, are missing some key issues.
“There’s some major goals that are missing from this list,” he said. “Those kinds of things that support us, good professional law enforcement and public safety is one of the values that we hold dear in the Verde Valley, and, in particular, Camp Verde, Arizona. So that’s one of the things that I thought was missing right off the top.”
Councilwoman Jackie Baker said she agreed with the points the other towns have made and emphasized her stance that the Verde Valley should be considered a community of interest.
“I agree with everything that was there. …The more that this entire area can speak as one and with everything that we do, whether it’s trying to get funding, whatever, the more that we can speak as one voice the better for all the citizens of the Verde Valley,” she said.
The council ultimately unanimously voted to have Mayor Dee Jenkins and Miller speak at the July 27 meeting and share the following statement:
“The Town of Camp Verde values an outcome that creates a district that maintains the Verde Valley communities that includes the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the city of Sedona, Cottonwood, Jerome and Clarkdale, as well as other unincorporated areas around the Verde Valley, together within a district.”
“Further, the Town of Camp Verde seeks a Legislative and Congressional District outcome that recognizes the importance of aligning communities of interest. Town of Camp Verde values placement within a district with other communities that have similar common interests related to economy, educational institutions, public safety, infrastructure, transportation, broadband, health care systems, natural resources emphasizing our most precious resource the Verde River, ecotourism and economic development opportunities.”
